GOP watch: Mission impossible?

"Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele faces an all-but-impossible path to reelection this month, as a majority of the RNC’s 168 members indicate that they will not support the controversial chairman for another term. A weeklong canvass of the party’s governing board by POLITICO revealed 88 members who have decided not to vote for Steele, either opting to support one of his opponents or simply ruling out Steele as a choice in the race."

Ahead of today's RNC chairman debate, Gentry Collins dropped his bid for RNC chairman, Politico's Martin reports. Collins, a former RNC political director, received the support from only three committee members, but a scathing letter he wrote detailing the problems of the current RNC, many believe, was perhaps the final nail against Steele.

"Phil Cox, who managed Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s landslide victory in 2009, will serve as the next executive director of the Republican Governors Association, POLITICO has learned."